Tales of Scales and Thensome
by MorbidOptimist
Summary: I don't believe anyone's made a mermaid au yet. I'm fixing that.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, this is a disclaimer:

I don't own anything.

So I've noticed that there is quite a lack of the "silly" AUs, like coffee shops, space races, mermaids, and college kids.

I'm fixing the mermaid one.

* * *

Her hand floundered around in the darkness, she was still clinging to sleep, and was too groggy to do anything more than make directionless swatting motions in the general direction of where she presumed her oldest charge to be. When several attempts proved fruitless she sighed and rubbed her eyes open.

The violets of her eyes shrank in the gloom as she took in the familiar shapes lining her cave. It was small, and more of a personal den than the mysterious lair her friends liked to tease.

Feeling a gentle pressure at her side, Raven looked to her left, and two small shapes stood out from the shadows of her belongings and a quiet smile momentarily graced her face. She watched them twitch in their sleep for a moment, with a bubble of contentment in her chest.

They were curled up next to each other, likely having passed out as they usually did, with Timmy and Teether fighting over who would get to sleep in Teether's security shell, despite Timmy no longer being able to fit in it properly. A ripple of amusement spread through her muscles along her spine and she propped herself up, images of such past scuffles flickering through her mind without any real purpose.

And then she felt her gills flare with unease, and her tentacles began weaving themselves in knots beneath her as she realized that while the two boys were sleeping peacefully beside her, they were the only other occupants of her cave.

Melvin was missing.

Raven fought down the spike of panic threatening to send her tearing through the reef in a mindless fury and took a deep breath.

She used the tentacle closest to the boys to spread a blanket of sand over their bodies to keep the evening chill out of their bones, taking care not to let her spines or suckers catch on their scales and slipped out into the reef.

It was still really late, to the point of being very early, and though the water was brightening slowly, it was still by minute degrees and the reef was colored in various hues of unflattering grays.

Her two fins pulsated, keeping her in place, and Raven glanced around the surrounding reef. She closed her eyes, and focused on the reef as her two velar filaments slid out of their pouches and as they unfurled into the ocean before her, the only signals of mer movement they picked up were from the children behind her. She sighed and withdrew them, as they were far too sensitive to keep in the densely populated reef for too long. Sensing every fish and crustacean in a ten fathom radius gave her a headache.

It was a shallow hope that she would find her oldest charge hidden amongst the coral and in no general danger, but now that it was beached Raven found her unease beginning to naw at her flesh anew; if Melvin wasn't near the cave, then she had gone off to find Bobby, her imaginary whaleshark who lived past the Drop Off.

There was no time to sound an alarm, it would take far too long to awaken her pod and every second she wasted was a second sooner that the little girl could die.

Cursing the figment with the entirety of her being, and her own actions for fighting with Melvin about his existence so often, Raven shot off as fast as her body could propel her, barely dodging the corals and plants interrupting her path.

The fish at least had the decency to get out of her way.

* * *

As an author's note,

Mer!Raven is based around a Vampire Squid, and if you haven't goggled them before I highly suggest taking a look! There's not too much on their wiki because there isn't a whole lot known about them, but they are pretty cool. I've tried to keep as much of the "real" abilities of the animal as I can, because honestly speaking they mashed up better than I ever could have hoped, but I did take liberties on the coloration and the number of her tentacles, which is a result of her father being a kraken, and as you very well know, something like that is going to mess with your genetics.

Jinx is _loosely_ based around a catfish and an eel. There is no such thing as a Cheshire Catfish (to my knowledge) so I made her roughly how I thought her abilities would translate over into being as a mermaid.

Beast Boy is a mimic octopus, Starfire will be based on a few different things, and Cyborg will have prosthetics that some human scientists gave him after getting into a horrible boating incident that happened when he was younger.

I don't know how long I'll make this but I think its a fun idea anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

I still own nothing,

And to this story's first reviewer,

These are definitely uncharted waters indeed.

* * *

The few minutes it took for her to speed out of the reef were a few minutes too many in Raven's opinion.

As she neared the Drop Off, she saw shapes emerging out of the darkness, one of which was very large, that was still far away to properly identify in the bad lighting, and a smaller one which her gut identified as her missing child. Relief momentarily restored her breath until the sight of a third figure caught her attention and her heart very nearly went cold as a flash of pink sparked briefly in the murky waters.

The only mer near the reef with pink sparks was Jinx, the leader of a pod rivaling them for control over the reef. She was quick and disorientating, dangerous and reckless. Wild and unpredictable. Their pods had clashed many times for their poaching of the reef, and Raven had fought personally against the Cheshire mer enough times to know that if Melvin got caught in her flares, she'd likely be stunned to death.

And what was worse, was that the large shape was circling around in a very unnerving manner, and something in her got told her that she wasn't lucky enough for it to be one of Jinx's teammates.

Rage filled Raven to her core and she felt her skin ignite red with the irritation, changing the color of her luminescence.

"Good," she thought, as the strange red patterns lit up all the way to her arms, "Let me be terrifying."

And with that she swam faster, with the burning intent and grim dedication common of a Titan heading into battle.

Another flicker of pink lit up the sea and this time the flash lasted long enough for Raven catch a glimpse of what was going on.

The large shape was a great white shark.

Jinx had positioned herself between the shark twice her size and Melvin, and she looked determined. They were both at the edge of the drop off and the shark was just farther in the Deep. Jinx sparked whenever the shark drew too close, and her stripes were constantly dancing along her skin. Despite the display, the shark seemed to be gaining confidence.

When she reached them Melvin charged into her at full force and Raven felt her rage dissolve. Her red phosphorous faded and the ends of her main tentacles lit up in their normal blue.

She gathered the girl into her arms for a hug and Melvin, knowing that she was treading thin waters, began to blubber her apologies but Raven hushed them by hugging her tighter.

When Raven released her, Melvin exclaimed excitedly, "I was trying to find Bobby and then I got lost and I thought I was a goner but then she came out of nowhere and she was showing me the way home and then he came out of nowhere and then you showed up!"

"Jinx was leading you back to the Reef?" she asked, not quite sure what to make of the statement, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, she said that the Deep was too dangerous for a kid like me and I tried to tell her that I was doing just fine but then… you know… a shark appeared and I still haven't seen Bobby, but I would have found him if it hadn't have been for that mean ol' fishface."

Raven sighed and pushed down the rant about swimming off on her own for later when everyone was home and safe again.

Instead she turned her attention back to the immediate threat after Jinx drummed a warning. The barbells dotting her abdomen were twitching and when Raven found what had caught the girl's attention Raven felt her blue lights dim.

There was another dark shape approaching from the distance.

Which meant that if things turned bad, they were going to gain a lot more attention very shortly; if they got themselves injured their bloodtrails would lead other deep sea predators right to their pods, and anything could happen in a blood frenzy such as that.

"Would you be up for a little truce Jinx?" Raven asked as she lit her body up red again.

Though Jinx's attention was still focused on the sharks, she replied "this bastard's been following us for awhile now and I didn't want to lead him into the reef. He's more of a pain in the tailfin than Robin is. And now there's _two_ of them."

"So is that a yes?"

"It's a _fuck_ yes," Jinx replied wholeheartedly, "And the guppy?"

Raven cast a glance at her rival and pushed Melvin behind her with a tentacle before turning to her.

"Melvin, can you make it back to the reef?"

"I think so?" she offered, her face laced with uncertainty. She had already been swimming for several hours in deep water and was quite worn out.

Raven shook her head and cast her glance to the bottom, there were enough that the girl could hide there until it was safe.

"Melvin, when Jinx and I make our moves, I want you swim to the bottom as fast as you can and hide under the rocks and in the sand until I tell you to come out again, do you understand?"

She nodded, but frowned as she caught notes of Raven's extra serious voice. She was scared, but she had absolute faith in her mentor.

Satisfied, Raven turned back to the sharks, who were circling them now.

"Jinx?"

"I heard you gillbreath, you take Dumb and I'll take _Dumber_."

With that as her warning, Jinx rocketed forward at the first shark and rammed into its side with her shoulder at full force. A cloud of blood puffed from the fish's gills and Jinx shook her body to keep from losing consciousness herself.

Seeing the combat start Melvin dove to the sea bed as fast as her tail could carry her.

The second shark charged towards the girl and Raven raced forward to intercept him.

Jinx popped her shoulder back into place as her shark brought itself back to face her and she rippled her stripes to keep the shark's attention from straying to the other pair.

She narrowly dodged the shark's lunge and took the opportunity to grab its dorsal fin and shocked it before it managed to throw her off.

Raven hit her shark in the middle of its descent after Melvin; she latched on, her suckers catching first, spines second, and by using every tentacle at her disposal, she forced the mouth closed.

Melvin made it to the bottom and the resulting cloud of sand told Raven that she was well hidden.

The shark she was riding however, was livid, and thrashed around wildly. The suckers along her tentacles kept her from losing her grip and a viscous snarl emanated from her throat. She began to weave her tentacles inside the shark's gills for added leverage.

The water was starting to get brighter now, and Raven could now easily make out the shark fight that Jinx was having in the early morning light.

Jinx was winning, as the shark now understood that her pink flashes were painful and threw off its equilibrium when they hit directly. She had rammed him enough that he had finally lost interest.

She let her shark swim off, hoping that the scent of blood would cause the oncoming investigators to follow it instead of harassing them.

Feeling satisfied with herself, Jinx turned to see how her rival was faring, and although she was fairly impressed with the girl's tenacity and willingness to fight a shark face first, she swam over to them and watched as Raven ripped through the shark's gills.

"The more blood you spill the more of 'em will come round in a few minutes," Jinx called after the thrashing pair.

Raven was too engrossed in her battle to reply and so Jinx switched tactics, "I know it's spawning season an all, but _surely_ you could find someone more interested in eating you _out_ than eating you _up_?"

Raven startled at that and nearly lost her grip on the giant fish as Jinx circled to the shark's tail and took hold.

"I'll pull back and you hop off?" Jinx offered with a cheeky smile.

Raven grimaced, not really wanting to let go, but nodded.

Jinx lit up and shocked the shark with several volts of pink electricity and Raven released a cloud of ink as she propelled herself backwards. The swirling colors dazed the fish greatly which allowed Raven to slip away unnoticed.

Raven swam to Jinx's side and they quickly descended to the sea floor.

"You ok?" Jinx asked, "Not missing any limbs or anything?"

"Nothing that won't grow back," Raven replied with mild amusement.

Raven turned her gaze upwards to the shark leading Jinx to follow suit. The shark made it out of the ink cloud, and was looking quite worse for wear. It circled once, and they watched it swim towards the Deep, with small rivers of red leaking from its gills.

Raven settled herself in the sand and let the tension melt off of her body and coil into the seabed. Her luminescence extinguished itself and the amount of her tentacles retreated to a more manageable number, at least by outward appearance.

Jinx rolled on the seabed, the action tickling out the stress.

"So, that was something," Jinx offered.

"Certainly something," Raven agreed.

Jinx rolled in the sand again, contorting her back as only those of the Cheshire breed could, and then flipped over on her back and looked at Raven inquisitively.

"Are you gonna be able to get that smallfry home ok?"

"We'll be fine," she replied alongside a nod before pausing, and then she cocked her head to one side and asked, "Will _you_ get home alright?"

Jinx laughed, a loud and almost hissing sound, and then she smiled, a smile filled with sharp and pointy teeth which was common enough for carnivorous mers.

"Don't you worry your pretty little skirt about me Titan, I'm a big girl."

She winked and then closed her eyes as she nestled her tail deeper into the sand and sprawled out her arms.

Raven glanced upwards again, the sunlight filtering the sea in shades of blue now, and when she caught no signs of sharks, decided that it was time to call her little girl out of hiding.

"Melvin! It's alright now, you can come out," Raven called out across the ocean floor.

Some tail lengths away, there was a stir in the sand as Melvin pulled herself out from a small crevice she had wedged herself in. It took a little bit of wiggling, as she had wedged herself tightly, but she popped out no worse for wear.

Melvin darted forward happily and circled the two older mers before settling herself in Raven's lap with abandon.

"I can't wait to tell Timmy that I watched you fight a shark today!" she exclaimed excitedly, eagerness littered across her face, and her fins flared for emphasis.

"And I can't wait to tell you why swimming off on your own is a bad idea," Raven warned, which put a hesitant look across the girls face.

"I'm grounded aren't I?"

"Very."

The little girl sighed and Jinx flipped over.

"Well," she drawled, "Not that this hasn't been quite an adventure but I think it's time I get going. Later squirt," she offered while giving the girl's hair a friendly ruffle, "Let me know next time you're out in the Deep so that I can kick your ass before the sharks do."

Melvin giggled and Jinx looked turned her gaze from the little girl to the older one holding her, which prompted the Titan to speak.

"Thank you for the assistance."

"Yeah whatever, the HIVE Shoal will have their day yadda yadda yadda."

"I mean it," she insisted, "Melvin is alive because of you."

Jinx blushed a bit and played it off with puff of her chest and a swish of her dorsal fins.

"Just you wait, my rebelness will wear off on her, then you'll be cursing me again," she jested.

Raven offered her a crooked smile, and then scooped herself off of the sea floor. Melvin grabbed on to her shoulders and Jinx watched them ascend for a bit and then turned tail to get back to her friends.

* * *

author's note:

vampire squids dont actually have ink. just flash bomb mucus.

i'm too attached to raven having ink to change it.

no one can stop me on this matter.


	3. Chapter 3

Alright, if you've made it this far I'm fairly certain that you know that I disclaim all DC characters, so let's move on.

* * *

The swim back to Raven's den was calming for the older mer. The familiar sponges and polyps gave her a sense of contentment, and with the sunlight now streaming down, the reef was quickly blooming into life once more.

Melvin was also enjoying the ride; she was still hanging onto her mentor's shoulders, and she was being relatively quiet, partially from exhaustion, partially from knowing that she was still awaiting punishment, and mostly because she was still upset that she had not managed to find her friend.

She did however point out a friendly turtle and a couple of striped snakes to the older mer, for even Melvin was not immune to the charms of the reef, especially at her young age.

When Raven neared the corals surrounding her den, she spotted a flash of her leader through the foliage and called out a greeting.

He nodded as she settled herself, and the two boys flanking him, each with one of his fins in hand, raced forward to greet her.

"They were quite worried about you."

Raven nodded as she hugged the little mers; "I'm afraid I had a little moonlit swim to interrupt this morning," she replied as one of her tentacles slid Melvin off of her shoulders and gently pulled her in front of their leader, "Melvin went to the Deep last night and I left to retrieve her."

The armored plates along Robin's body clicked softly as he pondered the situation for a moment; he looked over the girls and was thankful neither of them appeared to be any worse for wear.

"Did you have any trouble?"

"A little, of which I'll tell you shortly," Raven replied while giving Melvin an affectionate pat, "After I make sure everyone is alright, if that is fine by you."

His dorsal fin smoothed itself along his spine in an affirmative while he replied, "The boys have already eaten, as Star's the one who found them this morning, and you know how she is;" to which Raven hummed accordingly, "She also left me with a little something for Melvin;" he handed her a bundle wrapped with kelp leaves with Raven took graciously; it was not was not hard to find food in the Reef, but Star had correctly assumed that Raven had not yet had time to forage for anything.

"They did not give her any trouble I hope?" she asked as she delegated the bundle to one of her tentacles.

"Nah," he replied happily with a shake of his head, "Once she offered to let them braid her hair they were right as reeds. I only stepped in when it was time for her to patrol the kelp beds."

"You must remind me to thank her then, and yourself, for that matter."

He grinned again and nodded, politely dismissing her; "I'll be out here when you're ready," he offered.

With a final nod, Raven scooped up the kids, a tentacle around each, and brought them back into the den.

She released them as gently as she had gathered them, and the boys wasted no time to start circling about their sister in greeting.

Teether, the youngest, still had a little trouble maneuvering and therefore settled for hugging her from the sand, but he was growing strong and Raven had no doubt that once he was developed enough that he would be more than capable of pulling off every move his siblings could.

Their friendly reunion was cut short however, as Raven called Melvin back over to her.

Reluctantly, the young mer girl swam forward.

"Melvin."

"Yes mam?"

"Before I say anything about rules or punishments, I would like to know why you felt the need to swim off alone last night."

"Well," Melvin began, with a hand stroking one of her arm fins absently, "I wanted to see Bobby."

"We've seen Bobby plenty of times," Raven countered.

"No we haven't!" Melvin shouted; her fins flared and her eyes grew wide, "He's afraid of anyone seeing him so whenever I go with the others he never shows up," as she continued she deflated a bit, and her fidgeting increased, "So I thought that if _I_ went on my own that _I_ could bring him back here and show you that he _is_ real. And it would be nighttime so everyone else would be sleeping and he wouldn't get scared."

Raven held her tongue between her teeth and breathed deeply. She was silent save for the sounds of sand being brushed against her tentacles.

Timmy hugged his sister's arm, and she smiled at him halfheartedly.

Teether was still resting on the floor, now with his shell in his mouth. His tail fins slapped the sand gently whenever he found a particularly nice section to bite.

She let go of her breath.

"Melvin."

"Yeah?"

"Going off on your own is a very bad idea, which is why there are rules against you doing it and while I am _very_ thankful that neither the sharks or the HIVE got you, I'm pretty sure you realize that it would be very possible for them to do so?"

Melvin nodded.

"And I _don't_ want to punish you for trying to be considerate of your… _friend_, but you _did _do something very dangerous," she continued.

Melvin nodded again with more vigor.

"So what do you think? What do you think would be a fair punishment for this problem?"

The girl stopped and thought about it for a minute, her face scrunched up and her tail flicked steadily as she worked something out. When she came to a conclusion her eyes lit up with a bit more confidence, she replied, "Maybe I can make it up to you by helping extra hard? And I can promise not to go off on my own again?"

"That sounds reasonable," Raven replied, with a smile, and Melvin brightened slightly.

"And _maybe_, in a few days, if you've behaved _really _well, you can be ungrounded," she added quickly, "alright? So now going past the Reef or to the Surface or anywhere else unless someone from our pod is escorting you, do you understand?"

"Alright," the girl replied reluctantly; she had gotten off easy, but there was only so much one could look forward to barnacle hunting with Robin or kelp tending with Starfire.

"Now did you get hurt at all?"

The girl shook her head, "No, I'm fine."

"Alight then, now I'm sure you're tired from your adventure so go ahead and take a nap. One of the others will be around when you wake up and if you're hungry there's whatever Star's left for you this morning."

Melvin nodded and Raven handed her the kelp wrapped bundle.

She swam to her side of the cave, where there was a perfectly shaped crevice for her in the sand and she unwrapped the kelp from the prize within.

It smelled like swordfish from what Raven could make out, which was a treat for the pod left over from the hunt a day prior; their cybernetic friend had really outdone himself on that account.

The boys, having not been a part of the events were now looking at her expectantly.

She held eye contact for a few moments with a raised brow, making them shift uneasily before she smiled and nodded.

The two boys raced out of the cave, ready to properly start their day.

As they were still quite young, their day mostly consisted of them playing hide and seek in the kelp forest or racing around in the reef, which taught them valuable skills like where to hide and how to maneuver in tight places.

They were also quite good at finding useful items that the others didn't have time to look for, such as shells and the occasional sand dollar. Pretty trinkets could be traded or used for ornamentation and their pod always looked forward to seeing what the children could find.

Starfire's hair was filled with things woven in from their scavenger hunts, and despite Raven mostly sparing herself of adornments; she kept a small pile of treasures that they had given her at the back of her cave.

Timmy's blue security shell was one such find, and after discovering how useful it was for carting treasures around that day, it had quickly become their favorite object. Raven had attached a strap to it and now it was used for the older children to carry Teether with them, rather than leave him with their mentor which excited them and the youngest mer greatly.

They had also been the ones to present Robin with his harpoon, which they had dug up in the grass bed. He had been carrying it proudly ever since, and it had definitely helped cement their place in the pod, which Raven had feared for when she had first brought them in from the Deep.

Sometimes they caught and brought back small crustaceans such as crabs or crawfish for the pod and one time, impressively, a very sizable lobster.

Mostly they would collect shells and shiny rocks, and using his amazing sonar ability Timmy was able to stun fish, which Raven only permitted him to do one fish at a time to keep the Reef from collapsing, which Melvin usually enforced as the sonar sound was quite painful to listen to for too long.

They were also still learning which species were toxic to eat, and under Raven's orders, if they didn't recognize it, they weren't allowed to hunt it until she or one of the others had identified it for them.

As a result Timmy tended to only stun enough to tide himself over until supper and Melvin was left to hunt manually for herself.

Teether, whom Raven was convinced was part cookie cutter shark, had no trouble stuffing things into his mouth, alive or not, and there was really nothing anyone could do about it, although Raven and Melvin did try their best to keep him from eating anything that wasn't digestible.

Raven watched them for a few moments and then turned back to Melvin who was now nibbling on the kelp wrap.

She swam forward and hugged her again; she held her until the girl relaxed and returned it.

She kissed the girl's head and released her, and tucked Melvin into the sand like she used to do when she was younger.

"Sleep well little limpet, I'll likely be back for supper."

Melvin's reply was lost in her yawn and so Raven took her cue to leave the den.

True to his word, Robin had remained a few tail lengths away from the den and was awaiting her report.

"Everything sorted out?" he asked, while his large fins rippled to keep him in place and his forespines twitched with interest.

Raven exhaled, displaying the wariness of the day's events and Robin smiled knowingly.

"That bad huh?"

"Two sharks and a HIVE member."

The smile instantly fell off the alpha's face and his brows knit in worry.

"Explain."

Raven sucked in a large drawl of water into her gills to begin regaling her tale; "I woke up last night when I got the feeling that something was wrong. I tucked the boys in knowing that they were safer asleep and in bed then going with me in the middle of the night. I didn't fetch anyone because I didn't have that kind of time. The closest would have been Gar and he's in the complete opposite direction of the Drop Off."

"Alright," he replied begrudgingly; he was never fond of anyone going out near the Deep on their own, even on the Shelf he preferred when his pod kept to pairs at minimum as the HIVE scavenged it at will.

"And when I got there I saw Melvin being shielded by Jinx," Raven continued while Robin's curiosity peaked and his frown worsened.

"She had apparently found Melvin wandering in the Deep and was bringing her back to the Reef when a shark started to follow them. By the time I got there it was ready to make one of us lunch and there was another one on its way."

"Odd, they usually prefer to scavenge."

Raven shrugged and continued, "Maybe they were drawn in by the smell of our hunt the other two days ago."

"Perhaps."

"At any rate she took one and I took the other while Melvin hid at the bottom of the Shelf, er, Reefside that is," she clarified.

"Naturally."

"Once we fought them off she went her way and I took Melvin home; she's going to tail the others on chores for the next few days by the way."

"I'll have Garfield pick her up later; he's needed to do the clams for a while anyway."

Raven hummed an affirmative and Robin continued, "The fact that she ran into Jinx though worries me. It's more likely she would have ransomed the girl if you hasn't shown up if not have killed her up right."

"They're poachers Robin, not a war band."

"They are whenever they get a new headmaster."

"Can a shoal be blamed for following their alpha's example? They don't have much of a choice Robin, it's do or die out in the Deep."

Robin scowled, causing a deep drumming sound to verberate through his chest and Raven conceded the argument with a tilt of her head.

"I'm just saying that if she has been inclined towards harming Melvin, she would have done it before I had arrived and she certainly wouldn't have helped me with the sharks."

"She was likely priming the Shelf for a blood frenzy. No telling how much her friends could scavenge out of that."

"Reward enough for the life of an innocent I would hope, I'm fairly certain she threw out her shoulder in the ordeal."

"If that's the case then hopefully we won't have to deal with the HIVE until she's healed, knowing them though, they'll try to pull something just to show they can. I'll start my patrol earlier today just to make sure. Also I like the new look."

"New look?"

He gestured to her chest with a nod and Raven blanched; true to her alpha's word, the string of blue beads was missing from her breast.

"I must have lost them in the fight," she replied sadly, "I'll see if I can find them."

"I'll tell the others to keep an eye out for them. I'm sure they'll turn up."

Raven nodded dutifully before asking, "Anything you would have me do today?"

"I would rather you rest up yourself, since you've been fighting sharks all morning."

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't know I wasn't capable."

"Alright, but take it easy for my sake at least," Robin offered; his hand held in the way of peace, "There's only so much I can worry about in a day."

"Fair enough," Raven replied contently, being more agreeable now that her pride was still intact, "I could always help Victor check the net."

"Sounds good," he replied, "The net always needs fixing; I'm going to get started on that patrol and see if there's anyone up to anything they shouldn't be."

"Have fun."

"I should be so lucky," he bemusedly replied.

It was then that a familiar shade of green caught Raven's attention and nodded in its direction, "Is that Garfield?"

He put his hand to his eyes and gazed intently at the growing figure and thrummed affirmatively.

"I do hope he hasn't gotten himself knotted up again. He's going to lose a leg one of these days."

Robin's face remained passive as the changeling arrived quite out of breath.

"What's wrong Gar?"

"The HIVE," the managed between huffs, "They're at the Reef."

"What did I tell you, eh?"

"Something about bad luck I would imagine."

"I'm pretty sure they're looking for a fight," the still very much out of breath octoboy relayed.

"Then we'll give them one," Robin replied strongly; his armored scales clicked as he sounded a mighty thrum through his chest; "_TITANS TOGTHER!_"

* * *

Side note, Robin is a sea robin, which is quite close to flying fish; which I found amusing because of his parents being the "flying graysons".

***Special Edit Notes***

A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO Sky66 FOR CORRECTING CHAPTERS 1-3, which meant a lot to me, as no one has ever done something like that for me, and I also apologize greatly for the trouble it likely took in doing so!

Also, to answer a few of the questions posed:

The "skirt" to which Jinx is referring to is the webbing between Raven's outermost tentacles, as it gives her the look of having a skirt, despite it being made of her flesh. The webbing is actually called a cape according to the vampire squid's wiki, but I refrained from using that term due to orientation of where it was located on Raven.

Clothing does exist in this underwater world and are largely used as displays of status, or armor, and are made out of things found underwater. Nets, woven grasses perhaps, or skin taken from sharks, whales, and sea lions. Those sorts of things. If mers live inland within rivers or near populated shorelines, those mers could have access to more humanized clothing, although not all of it might survive well underwater.

I'll be touching on underwater cities briefly, but they do exist in small numbers due to their large sizes. Gotham Deep and Mertropolis, will be two examples. These cities are densely populated and contain a large number of adult mers. The residents of these cities often fight each other to gain better status. To keep from completely destroying local ecosystems, adolescent mers are encouraged to leave home and either establish their own colonies or join shoals or cities elsewhere although not all of them do. On the plus side, cities are great places to trade for materials or medicines, which are always in high demand.

The story does in fact take place on Earth, but on an alternate one with more than .1% of the reef systems still thriving and one where corals are more adaptable to begin with. The humans, upon discovering mers, strived to maintain as pollution free as possible as a whole throughout the ages.

There are still "_unfortunate accidents_" however, as this is the human race we are discussing.

As far as direct positioning goes, Titans Reef is technically a barrier reef, though they wouldn't come into contact with humans naturally. They could easily run across a boat during its travels, especially barges, or an occasional fishing boat.


End file.
